Chapter and Verse: Why Faith-Based Voting is a Bad Idea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This story about Donald Trump speaking at Liberty University is so full of gross things, I don't know which gross thing to discuss\u00a0first. Wait. Yes I do.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2016\/01\/chapter-and-verse-why-faith-based-voting-is-a-bad-idea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chapter and Verse: Why Faith-Based Voting is a Bad Idea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story about Donald Trump speaking at Liberty University is so full of gross things, I don't know which gross thing to discuss\u00a0first. Wait. 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{"id":4083,"date":"2016-01-19T18:54:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T01:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2016-01-19T19:00:31","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T02:00:31","slug":"chapter-and-verse-why-faith-based-voting-is-a-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2016\/01\/chapter-and-verse-why-faith-based-voting-is-a-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter and Verse: Why Faith-Based Voting is a Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This story about Donald Trump<\/a> speaking at Liberty University is so full of gross things, I don\u2019t know which gross thing to discuss\u00a0first.<\/p>\n

Wait. Yes I do. Let\u2019s start with \u201ctwo Corinthians.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this without context, you might be thinking\u2026 Two Corinthians what?<\/em> Two Corinthians walked into a bar? Or, \u201cTwo Corinthians<\/em>: The long-awaited sequel to the epic saga, Corinth One<\/em>\u2013coming soon to a theater near you!\u201d<\/p>\n

But no. In his speech to the broadly Christian student body, Trump *tried* to quote scripture. But being a little too in-the-notes, he read not \u201c2nd Corinthians\u2026\u201d but straight-up TWO CORINTHIANS. Word on the Christian collegiate street is that there was much snickering in the audience\u2026 Well I guess so<\/em>. I\u2019m an ordained, seminary-trained pastor and you wouldn\u2019t catch me trying to quote scripture to that crowd. I mean, those kids have been to BIBLE CAMP. Bible camp kids are hard-core.\u00a0 $\"open-book-981405_640\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

But apparently not hard-core enough. Because if the wildly out-of-context scripture slinging didn\u2019t win them over, then the embracing of a totally manufactured Christian persecution complex did. There were cheers and applause as Trump vowed to \u201cprotect Christianity.\u201d Presumably, from feminists, terrorists, and people who, you know, think Jesus wasn\u2019t a white guy. But whichever.<\/p>\n

Listen, you would never in life catch me shaming somebody for not knowing scripture. My world view is not so narrow as to assume all people everywhere have been exposed to the biblical narrative, and that those who missed the memo are just plain stupid. HOWEVER\u2013I will happily shame somebody for not knowing scripture, and then\u00a0trying to use<\/em>\u00a0scripture for their own twisted ends.\u00a0Yes, I will shame that hard.<\/p>\n

At the same time\u2013 it\u2019s not entirely his fault. It is a ridiculous litmus test, truly, to demand any candidate for the presidency declare a particular brand of faith, articulated in a certain secular language, and with the correct parameters of ideology as framework. I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again\u2013if this is a requirement of political office in this country, then we are just begging to be lied to. <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>If the only way to power is by way of a narrow, culturally prescribed system of belief, then a whole lot of people are suddenly going to \u201cbelieve.\u201d If our pool of candidates is suddenly full of phonies, hypocrites, and \u201ctwo Corinthians,\u201d then we have only \u00a0ourselves to blame. Or rather, we can blame a national rhetoric that glorifies buzz words, sound bites and entertainment value bullying at the expense of authenticity.<\/p>\n

I could care less if our next president is Christian. But if that\u2019s what you\u2019re after, then for the love, ask some harder questions than \u201chow are you going to protect my personal rights and freedoms\u201d and \u201cdo you proclaim Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.\u201d First of all, those two realities are mutually exclusive\u2013and if you don\u2019t know why, I can\u2019t tell you.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, making spoken belief the key requirement for candidacy\u00a0sets the stage for people like Trump to come in and pretend to be everything you\u2019re looking for. It\u2019s not a tough bill to fill when it\u2019s so narrowly prescribed.<\/p>\n

What I could go for is a leader who is Christlike in action and speech\u2013even if said leader does not claim to be a distinctly Christian in practice or belief.\u00a0Wouldn\u2019t that be something to see? To have to\u00a0wonder\u00a0<\/em>what a candidate believed, because they\u2019re not talking about it; but being able to infer, by his or her policies, that they were a person of faith?<\/p>\n

The good news\u2013I mean the really great news\u2013is that Sarah Palin publicly endorsed Trump today. And since that plan worked so well for John McCain, then I\u2019d say Trump has about as much chance of being President as he does being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I\u2019m not holding my breath.<\/p>\n

The deeper, more troubling element here is how many\u00a0Christians are buying this political sideshow. In spite of his hateful rhetoric about Mexicans, Muslims and women. In spite of his disregard for the poor. In spite of the fact that other nations with which we align ourselves are literally talking about\u00a0banning him from their country. <\/em>And yet\u2013here he is, climbing the polls because he is willing to pander to the absolute lowest common denominator of faith-based, single issue voters.\u00a0These are strange times, folks.<\/p>\n

It may seem ironic that I, as a pastor, do not consider myself a faith-based voter. Well\u2013I do and I don\u2019t. I do not consider myself a faith-based voter in the sense that I need my political leaders to parrot back to me my own system of belief\u2013chapter and verse\u2013affirming my faith in the most surface and secular way possible.<\/p>\n

I AM a faith-based voter\u2013as are many people I know\u2013in that I let my faith guide my stance on issues. I resist the urge to place my faith in a single person, or a single party. And I challenge the notion that any one candidate \u2013or party\u2013can effectively lead an entire country while catering to the insecurities of a single demographic.<\/p>\n

It bears noting that the diatribe Trump unleashed on Liberty University yesterday fell on Martin Luther King day\u2013a day meant to honor a man who sought to model Christ in his teaching and leading, and who left a lasting legacy of liberty, justice and freedom. That Trump \u201cdedicated\u201d his \u201crecord high turn-out\u201d to King\u2019s memory is even more confounding than his ill-quoted Bible verse. I can think of nothing more contradictory\u00a0to King\u2019s message\u2013or to the gospel itself\u2013than Trump\u2019s perpetual riff on white privilege and entitlement. Here\u2019s hoping the stark irony of it all only serves to draw out the facade.<\/p>\n

I appreciate the many evangelicals and other conservative Christians who are speaking out against his campaign. I appreciate people of faith who can see past a facade of poorly-quoted scripture and look for more substance. I\u2019m thankful that this thing is far from over, and that Trump will have plenty more chances to step in an eschatological hole. Pray with me that he won\u2019t so quickly climb out of the next one\u2026 But once he falls off the scene (Lord, in your mercy) there will be another to take his place. And another, and another.<\/p>\n

Because as long as \u201cChristian\u201d is the first box on the proverbial ballot, there will be plenty of people lining up to check it. And if we\u2019re going to make that the most important question, we\u2019d better be ready for the next misquoted answer.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"